So where do Oilers start if the coach is safe and they're making a trade?

Unless Edmonton Oilers’ GM Craig MacTavish has a sudden change of heart or somebody higher up the food chain tells him to make a coaching change (or I’m reading the wrong tea leaves), it doesn’t appear the beleagured Dallas Eakins is going anywhere; he will probably be running practice Monday morning before the Edmonton Oilers fly to his namesake city to play the Stars Tuesday.

That may not sit well with some folks in OilerNation, who seem mad as hell and not willing to take it anymore as Peter Finch was in that great movie Network, but MacTavish reportedly was interested in telling one and all shortly after Eakins’ post-game presser Saturday in the wake of a 7-1 Blackhawks drubbing, that Eakins was still his guy but it was decided the GM wait until the dust settled. And, really, firing the coach is always the knee-jerk remedy for fans.

Unless MacTavish is an NHL outlier, GM’s always try to make trades before they look at the coach (unless, say, the Oilers, losers of six in a row, also get blown out three in a row in Dallas, Nashville and St. Louis on the upcoming road trip). Really, this is the GM’s team. He put it together. He signed free-agents this summer (Mark Fayne, Benoit Pouliot) or before this (Justin Schultz) and he traded for players (Nikita Nikitin, who was also signed to a new deal, and Teddy Purcell). None of the guys brought in this summer by MacTavish (Fayne, Pouliot, now out 5-6 weeks with a broken foot, Purcell or Nikitin) has been a revelation, some far from it. Fayne has been the best, fairly steady on the back-end.

It’s up to the GM to look at his team and try and fix what’s wrong on the ice.

Like pretty much every NHL GM, he would rather make a trade or two to change the makeup of the team to help the coach out before making a move behind the bench. And, really, who would replace Eakins in a season that looks lost as far as the playoffs go? MacTavish, who was burned out in 2009 and left? Farm coach Todd Nelson? Oiler assistant coach Craig Ramsay, who has had head coaching experience elsewhere? Somebody unemployed like Pittsburgh’s Dan Bylsma? It makes some sense to ride this out, at least until the season ends.

So we’re back at making a few trades to get the Oilers, who have fallen behind by 2-0 scores in six straight games, some different players. What do they need? There’s lots of boxes to cross off for MacTavish who was probably working the phones hard Sunday before the Oiler staff Xmas party. A No. 1 goalie might help, or somebody who has been that for a number of years. A defenceman who is a slam-dunk first-pairing guy who can provide offence and go against the other team’s top guns nightly–Mark Giordano in Calgary or Drew Doughty in LA–would be a windfall but teams aren’t trading them. A No. 2 or No. 3 centre if you feel Leon Draisaitl is being sucked into the vortex of losing at 19 and Mark Arcobello can’t be a productive third-line pivot?

MacTavish knows he has to make a trade, but what is his No. 1 priority? It’s tough to finger Ben Scrivens or Vitkor Fasth completely for their .887 and .890 save percentages because the team defence gives up so many chances. Against the Hawks, there were so many 3-on-2 breaks it looked like a normal morning line-rush practice. Is that the goalie’s fault? Do they need a 26 to 30-year-old centre with a 500 to 700-game pedigree and 500 or so NHL points to help No. 1 centre Ryan Nugent-Hopkins? They aren’t getting a Giordano or a Doughty or a Weber or a PK Subban. Normally you have to draft them. They thought Justin Schultz could be that guy, but he’s struggling mightily.

Here’s what the Oilers could be looking at:

Goal: Antti Niemi, 31, (San Jose). He’s played 293 games and is an unrestricted free-agent July 1, and his halcyon days in Chicago when he won the Cup in 2010 seem light years away. He does have good numbers since then in regular-season (2.38, 2.42, 2.17 and 2.39) but he is 20-20 in the playoffs in those four yeas. This year he’s 7-6-3 with a 2.58 average and .915 save percentage and the Sharks feel Alex Stalock can be as good, and they have young Troy Grosenick, who got a shutout in his first NHL game, coming. Would they take back, say, Fasth, also UFA and a young forward or D-man? Niemi’s cap hit is $3.8 mil, Fasth’s is $2.9 mil.

Josh Harding, Minnesota. Well actually he’s in Iowa, their AHL farm team. He hasn’t played in about a year, battling MS, then busting a foot before camp. He’s got good career numbers (2.45 average, 151 games), and he’s also UFA this summer, but he’s never really been a starting goalie. Plus, his multiple scerlosis saps his energy.

Centre:

Patrik Berglund (St. Louis). He’s the third centre there behind Paul Stastny and Jori Lehtera, the first-year Finn. His cap hit for this year and next is $3.9 million. He’s having a poor year (four points) and he’s only a 47.2 face-off guy, but he’s only 26 and he’s 6’3″, 217 pounds. Scouts say he may be more comfortable on the wing; he’s got a very good shot. The Blues are short of depth D-men after their top six, especially trading Jordan Leopold to Columbus, although they do have Chris Butler, who played in Calgary last year. If the Oilers wanted Berglund, they’d have to give up more than one piece.

Brayden Schenn (Philadelphia). He’s been on a tear and he’s been used on the wing there, too. The Flyers have Claude Giroux as the No. 1 centre and they love Sean Couturier. Can’t see them dealing Schenn unless they got a top-flight D-man in return because they have a slow-footed back-end.

Vinny Lecavlier (Flyers). Nah, forget him. He’s got six points and he makes way too much ($7.1 million) for years to come. Feeling he he doesn’t have much left in his tank and his legs are going on him. The Flyers would love to unburden themselves of his contract but they’d have to eat a chunk of it in any deal.

Lars Eller (Montreal). Lots of rumours there that the Habs could move Alex Galchenyuk, Nail Yakupov’s junior teammate, from wing to the middle to replace Eller but they really like him on the wing. Consensus of pro scouts is Eller, even with his four game-winning goals and nine points in Montreal, is a third-line centre not a No. 2. The Habs certainly would have interest in David Perron but would that be a fair swap. A second-line winger for a No. 3 centre?

Stephen Weiss (Detroit). Once upon a time he was a No. 1 in Florida before signing a five-year free-agent deal with the Wings for about $5 mil a season when they let Val Filppula go but he’s been hurt continually in Detroit (groin problems). Detroit might like to move his contract which has the rest of this season and three more, but his injury status should be scaring teams, plus the term left on his deal.

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